Choppy session ends in a loss

The sharemarket closed weaker yesterday as negative sentiment about economic growth continued to direct both local and offshore trade.
The ASX 200 index fell 8.8 points to 4953.2, while the All Ordinaries eased 7.5 to 4922.2.
CMC Markets analyst David Land said that while the market had followed the broad weakness in US stocks, volatile trade seen in the local bourse recently had continued.
"I think the sentiment that we've seen over the last couple of days in Australia on its own has actually been quite choppy," Mr Land said. "In the early part of the session we saw a continuation of the form seen yesterday.
"But this has rebounded quite a bit, particularly with some of the larger banks moving higher and this has gone quite a way to supporting the index."
Among the banks, NAB rose 28c to $36.38 and ANZ too was up 28c at $26.40 but the Commonwealth slipped 51c to $45.79 and Westpac lost 1c to $22.67. St George was up 7c to $29.17.
BHP Billiton dropped 16c to $27.07 and rival Rio Tinto fell $1.12 to $73.28. Woodside Petroleum rose 55c to $42.23, Santos eased 8c to $11.44 and Oil Search fell 1c to $3.97.
Hardman Resources, though, was up 2.5c at $1.435 after getting an "outperform" rating from Credit Suisse.
Goldminers were stronger, with Newcrest firming 37c to $19.70 and Newmont adding 11c to $6.90.
Gold explorer Gulf Resources listed on the stock exchange in line with its 20c issue price but ended at a high of 22.5c.
Coca-Cola Amatil shares tumbled 57c, or 8.66 per cent, to $6.01 after it reported a 21.3 per cent fall in first-half net profit to $114.3 million. Earnings were dragged down by higher raw material costs, a product recall in South Korea and slow sales in Indonesia.
Telstra closed steady at $3.80 after delivering its worst result since 1999-98. Annual net profit for 2005-06 fell 26 per cent to $3.18 billion.
The result was lower than the $3.3 billion analysts had expected. Ratings agency Moody's Investors Service maintained its negative outlook on the telecom.
Optus owner SingTel fell 3c to $2.03.
Futuris fell 4c to $1.91 after reporting its underlying net profit of $88.3 million for 2005-06 was up 23 per cent.
Investa Property, down 5c to $2.28, reported a 26 per cent rise in annual net profit to $333.97 million.
Cost-cutting helped printing and media group PMP lift 2005-06 net profit to $33.24 million, up from $31.31 million in the previous year. The shares rose 1.5c to $1.51.
Tishman Speyer Office Fund posted a 31.9 per cent drop in full-year net profit to $71.42 million thanks to new accounting standards. The shares closed steady at $2.26.